Mary had been reading a new book called,” The Path” by Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh.To her surprise, she saw it reviewed on her phone where she read the guardian news

.She had decided to get out of bed on the other side
When she awoke the next day, she remembered her vow.Unfortunately, she forgot she was inside a fleece sleeping bag with a zip on one side only.Should she get some scissors and cut her way out on the other side?Or was that a foolish idea since nobody but she would know she had failed her to keep her first new promise.
She heard a noise and them her friend Annie came in wearing a long satin nightgown and a green velvet trench coat.
How do you like this, she asked Mary?
Mary was very red yet silent
What is wrong, with you Mary?
I need to pee but I can’t get out of bed on the wrong side.
You have no choice, said Annie.You must not wet the bed or die from a burst bladder. Get out on the right side

But I feel a failure on my first day.
Maybe that is your lesson.Accept you can’t do it and get on with your day.
Mary ran to the bathroom.What a relief passing water can be to poor ladies who suffer afflictions in these regions.
Annie went down to the bijou yet complex kitchen and began to make some toast and boil some eggs.She gazed at the peach walls and melon cupboard doors unable to decide if she liked them.Maybe kingfisher blue might have been better.Too late now.Mary could not afford a new kitchen even if this one was really old.At least it was not orange as was common in the 70’s.
Mary came in with her golden hair standing up on end like candlesticks from the Synagogue.
I just got a shock, she said
I can see your hair is standing on end.Was it the electric socket?
No, there was a man looking into the window and I was naked in the bath.
Perhaps it was King David, Annie joked.Why don’t you have frosted glass?
Stan said it would frost itself in the winter.He was the least practical man in the world.
Maybe we could glue artificial frost onto it?
Who was the man, asked Annie her cheeks pinker than her perky pink lipstick by Licumb ; those lips which were so thick and sensual with a lovely curve.
Mary tore her eyes away from these lips.I didn’t have my glasses on, she said.Maybe it was a man from a hot air balloon?
Maybe someone fancies you at last,saidAnnie.
Do you think I’d go out with a man who does things like that?
No, you could stay in with him, Annie joked, as tears of mirth made her green eyeshadow and red mascara stream down her cheeks like rain after a nuclear explosion.No wonder men ran after her in the street.
You could succumb to his charms,Annie whispered.
I think I’d like a man more sensitive than that, Mary screeched.
Well, Mary, you are so lacking in knowledge the art of flirting you only notice men when they do something really wild or unusual
Like what, asked Emile who had just munched up a bowl of dried cat food and was full of energy.
Well, Stan kept pretending he loved reading Newton’s original writings which he bought from some unusual website thinking it would impress Mary. However as he failed O leve; maths 5 times he could not understand it.He sobbed and cried in the public library and Mary was moved by his grief.Later on, though, he became angry at her intellectual talent and took me as his mistress to get back at her.She never even noticed!
I don’t see how having a mistress is a revenge on poor woman who was given her genes by God, said Emile.
Don’t be daft, she buys her jeans from TK Maxx, Annie answered.
And so do all of us.

I can’t write any more right now!

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/aug/31/michael-rosen-guide-to-having-a-happier-day-in-bleak-times?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

BBC News – The little-known Welsh writer who was a Nobel nominee https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62n4n1r4ngo

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/18/are-we-living-in-a-golden-age-of-stupidity-technology

When doubts and drawbacks struggle in the mind
And certainty seems but a demon dream,
When the faith to love is what no-one can find
For even when asleep, the mind still schemes

When darkness and defeat seem close at hand
And lights dim even as we pray for peace
when wrecks and ruins rile the native sands
When in this life we feel we've lost our place...

Then at the saddest depth we see the light
Surrounding with such warmth,with love adorned.
The path that seemed so wrong now leads us right
And in our hearts, warm feelings are new born

Within each storm there is a calm still eye
From there we see the fiercest clouds blown by

Little plants that grow near to the earth

By storm and tempest rarely are destroyed

They hold themselves to be of little worth

They do not wish to bully or annoy

These little plants will flower and make their seeds

As beautiful as any garden rose

Every living thing is made to breed

The wisdom of the humble we must know.

Walking on the paths across the hills

We trample on these flowers but don’t destroy

These wild flowers revive they are not killed

By walking boots that still this earth annoy.

These little flowers are holy and they say 

The proud may be in error in their way

https://www.etymonline.com/word/wry

I took my temperature yesterday morning and it was rather low that is it was about 35.4 centigrade so I thought I’d better take it again in the evening

I looked at the thermometer and it was 41.1 so I talked to myself oh my god I’ve got sepsis!

I was too tired bother ringing anybody like 111.

I took it earlier today and it seemed to give the same reading but when I examined it closely I realized that somehow I had converted the scale into Fahrenheit.

The reading was 97.1 Fahrenheit so beware. I do find it difficult to read certain types of instrument or on various sorts of surface

https://theconversation.com/anger-management-why-we-feel-rage-and-how-to-control-it-50209

Anger disorder

There is no clear diagnosis of an anger disorder, but the psychiatric diagnostic manual does include “intermittent explosive disorder”, which is characterised by recurrent behavioural outbursts representing a failure to control aggressive impulses. This affects 7.3% of the population at some point in their life and 3.9% in the past 12 months.

Anger, however, is a common clinical presentation that features across an array of different mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use disorders and many more.

If you begin to notice that you are on edge quite a lot, do things that you later regret, are quick to react instead of respond, and that you have people in your life who have told you that you tend to get angry, it might be helpful to do something about it.

Halfway between a doodle and a script

The clouds make curves and lines across the sky

One looks like a face with sultry lips

We are nothing sailing in our ships

The universe is terror ‘vall’s awry

I can’t read this writing what’s the script?

Even Einstein could not give us tips.

All I do is let them sail on by

One looks like a face with sultry lips

Interpretations flounder, don’t know why

Little drawings doodles idle scripts

In the world of meaning there are cracks.

Light gets in but dazzles human eyes

This looks like a face with sulky lips

The clouds were slow but now they seem to fly.

Do they look at us as they go by?

Halfway between a doodle and a script

I see your face with swollen sensual lips

MARY OVERSLEEPS

Annie went onto Mary’s patio at 10 am and began to water her many tubs.The watering can was filled with rain water though the weather was now a little drier.

Emile ran behind her admiring her tight black jeans from Calvin Klein and her red blouse from Bowlands of Wrath.

Suddenly the bedroom window opened and Mary leaned out.
Hi Annie,I have not gone away after all.
Why not? asked her caring and dear neighbour
Well,I completely forgot because I was out last night meeting a man from Soul-mates and got home so late I slept right through the alarm.
A pity you didn’t bring him back,said Annie licking her lips.
I can’t bring any man here so soon,Mary informed her.I rang the hotel and cancelled my booking.With the weather so odd even Blackpool Illuminations would not cheer anyone up.I didn’t know which clothes to take either.
Isn’t it interesting that as we get better off we get problems like that,remarked Annie. When we were young we had so few clothes we had no trouble packing.
Mary laughed.My first year after University I bought two cotton dresses in Woolworth’s.I thought they were ok but later discovered they were almost transparent.Anyway I wore themn But now few women wear dresses.

7

Look at you in those jeans and you a pensioner!
Annie gazed up to Mary, revealing her thick Revlon skin polish and L’Oreal cream rich foundation in golden grey-beige.Her parted lips were coated in moisture rich coral lipstick by Mussolini and Co. of Argentina and Vienna.
Mary was wearing a long nightgown made of pure nylon decorated with photos of cats of all breeds.Emile had given it her for her birthday.He had managed to type it into the google box on his laptop paying with Stan’s credit card from the Bank of Vichy and Nice,France.
I want some tea,Mary said.

Soon she appeared in a polyester house dress from Daxon of Paris and the Ruhr. lt was covered in pictures of snakes.
Why,those snakes are rather horrible, Annie said.
I know snakes are in fashion but I shall avoid them.I saw some trousers in Marks but they might give a man the wrong impression.
That is sexist ,Mary told her shyly.They might give a lesbian the wrong impression too.
Oh,dear. Isn’t life hard now when we have to be so careful what we say.I wonder if it is because of social alienation and the rapid changes in demographics that we need rules when before we knew all our neighbours and they knew us.With strangers we need more rules.
I agree, said Mary defiantly.And I just saw a book called “Compassionate Assertiveness Training”She laughed.
Shall we send one to Donald Trump.Can you believe what America is like if a man like that can be President?
Well,it’s a democracy so if Satan lived there he could stand if he had the money..
The two women suddenly fell silent.Emile was puzzled as they rarely paused like this once they got going
Is he the anti-Christ, purred the little cat.
Satan or Donald Trump? asked Annie.
Well …. we’ve never seen Satan as yet…But we must watch out in case he comes here to punish the weak and the sick.
Well that gave them all a moment of wonder before Mary grilled some bacon and cut some bread from a loaf she got in the Victoria Bakery.
Here you are,she said to Annie,handing her a sandwich.Better eat anyway,whatever happens.Give me some hot tea,quick
And so pray all of us.
For he’s a Bally Woodfiller,
He’s a Wooly Sad Triller
And all day so are us.

God voluntarily turned himself in at one the governments vans asking illegal immigrants if they want to go home.Lawyers are assessing the cost of shooting God up to heaven from the top of Snowdon or Great Gable.
God declined to say how he arrived in Britain though his burkha gave us a clue .
She signed in for benefits as Jessy Christ and said she had two husbands.At the time she was labelled as border-line schizophrenic but the Father and the Spirit were found in her council house. helping some beggars to cook a nice dinner.To have a council house in Walthamstow is a miracle in itself
God will be getting a reduction in her housing benefit
He can sleep in one bedroom if the bed is bigger.The judge says he does not accept that each person in the Trinity needs their own room.
Why God came here is not known as yet.Why he stayed is even more puzzling given the native dislike of foreigners and illegal immigrants where ever they come from,
However God has been a great burden on the Economy as he has so many children that the Social Services can’t count them.Though many do seem to be employed gainfully or helping the sick and elderly
His English is ok grammatically but we were told he has a “foreign accent”
and had no papers or identity cards though he did have with him an archangel who spoke English with a Lancashire accent.
God has asked that all the Mediaeval Cathedrals be returned to the Catholic Church as his son does not like Anne Boleyn very much and thought Henry V111th was a narcissistic ego maniac with delusions… he
We’ll let you know more about the drain on the Economy and whether God caused the Recession in the next day or two.He certainly does move in mysterious ways…..that’s why no-one saw him arrive.
Watch out and keep your doors barred in case he tries to move into your house or garden shed with a few companions.You can recognise them by the golden glow around them and possibly their wings.Photos accepted.
Britain for the British.Have no mercy.Have no love of your neighbour.Everyone for himself or herself.He has to realise it’s a market society and that he needs PR and an advertising agent and a nationality and passport.
Keep Britain free from foreign invasions.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/oct/12/try-these-habits-to-reinvigorate-your-reading

write down and look up the meaning of unfamiliar words, which makes me tortuously slow at reading. I also like to reread certain phrases or sentences and think about them for a while. I enjoy books that are not mainstream too, although one of my favourites has been Orbital,.

After

Peeling

Hemlock

Raw

Or

Dried

Iris

Tried

Electricity

Minuets

Interest

Nobody

Unless

Everybody

Takes

Sides

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/oct/13/poem-of-the-week-my-mother-by-claude-mckay?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Mastering the art of writing poetry is impossible

In fact you can’t master any art

Nobody with any common sense was even try

Ideas themselves maybe a torment rather than a contribution

Must we despair if we cannot be the master of all?

Ultimately we hope to give joy to someone somewhere In The world

Mentioning this is possibly a mistake

Instead we should lose ourselves and the sea of words as long as we can swim

Don’t deny your talents and gift s out of modesty

Expectation is probably an enemy but idleness is worse.

After all we are all human beings living for a while in this tragic world

That’s the best way to look at it

BBC News – Want to feel calmer? How 20 minutes outside will help https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg0yvdjgn5o

BBC News – How to keep adult friendships and stop ghosting – BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwyr971q7rxo

Are you a bad enough parent? We’ve heard of good enough mothers through the work of Dr DW Winnicott, but surely mothers need to be bad as well and fathers do but how bad do they need to be?

Murdering their children will be too bad, but never disagreeing with them will be too good

Be bad enough to others to make sure you are respecting your own boundaries you know it makes sense and you read it here first in a similar manner you need your baby to be bad enough because if the baby is too good she will be ignored and made use of by unkind parents

Everybody needs to be a little bit bad enough to preserve their own self while living in this curious unequal society

My husband was in the hospital and he tested positive for  TV

That’s all right you can turn him on whenever you like

The surgeon drained my knee with a lozenge. Or was it a Syrian?   I wish I’d learnt to read when I was blunder

Did they put a primula in the back of your hand first?

She said your knee is twice the normal size, are you in any discomfort?

I knew my stockings were too tight, so I said, no.

She said, you don’t seem to realize the toll this is taking on me.

So I suggested she should change her job.

I was having a problem  distinguishing between myself and other people.

She said, all this pain is bad for you. Would you like a morphine patch on your shoulder?

I said, what about putting it on my bladder I would really like that better

She said I’ve never been so consulted in my satired life. You have to put the patch on your skin on top of some blood vessels

So I said, what about putting it over my heart?

Maybe you could inject it right into my heart directly.

That will be assisted dying and it’s not even legal yet so I will be committing murder.

I didn’t realise morphine was so dangerous. And it can make you feel depressed as well as killing you

Have you noticed now that nearly all the doctors are women and they work part-time and they tell you at 8:00 p.m. in A&E,

stop talking because I’ve got children working for me at home.

Is it my fault if they employ foreigners as  underage slaves?

Anyway I think I might be going deaf when I recover from all my ailments I  have to go to the doctor and say

I can’t hear you

And she will shout

What?

Modern slavery in Britain a serious things l

By the way there are people here we brought from Africa tempted by the offer of money and they are working as carers being paid the minimum wage and their own money to the company that brought them over claiming their needed it for their visas.

It’s a form of modern slavery in my opinion and it’s disgusting I have met some of them and they are lovely people some are qualified teachers and other professionals

The poverty in their home country is great and the life expectation is not very long but this is no reason to exploit them.

I’m learned from my experiences in the nursing home especially those I had with two very old ladies with dementia but also with a lot of personality as well. one of them said to me if only I could have visitors who didn’t keep talking I would just like to have someone there like my son in the room but not constantly talking. I was glad that I was able to be with her for an hour and a half on her last day of life. she was conscious but in severe pain and I sat by her until the nurse asked me to to leave because they had to wash her. When I got to the door she said say goodnight everyone. It was only 3:30 in the afternoon but I did what she wanted as I said on her behalf goodnight everyone good night it was a great privilege to know this Welsh school teacher who was a mother of three children the other woman was more severely affected by dementia I learnt from observation and experience that I could communicate with her much better if I was present snd fully aware of my own body. You could say when I was indwelling in my body. then she would respond even when she seemed mentally disturbed. through this being present I became fond of her I would say that in the end I loved her; she was very different from the angry person who swore at me when she finally said: you are so gentle, I love you K

O

While the priest annointed him with oils
I played in the gutter all alone
I hoped to find the marbles we had lost
Or from the melted tar to pluck a stone

The summer was so hot the cobbles baked
Looking like a row of fresh made loaves
There were no fishes in the millstream’s rush
Nor a place where bread and Saviour rose

I found a florin in the cobbled street
I found two marbles lying near a grid
I found a daisy squashed in a wide crack
I saw a spider hanged in its own web

To summarise ,my father went away
The Queen was crowned and we just had to play

I remember you boys rolling marbles down the gutter

And how you prized them, have beautiful they where when you rolled them on your hands in the sunshine

I remember you climbing  fences and falling off walls while I stood by to admire you

We found a well in someone’s allotment covered over mr by tin.

You frightened me with tales of boys vtorturing frogs.

Maybe you were frightened of the prospect of national service.

Sometimes you talked about the Nazis

But you could never have said  to anyone that you were afraid.

Before that I remember you climbing up the piano trying to get to the Christmas tree on the top.

You seem so full of energy alive so happy and yet it was not true

Later you developed panic syndrome I could hardly believe it

And then you died with Parkinson’s disease

You were lonely in the nursing home. I hoped when you drowsed that you remembered the marbles and playing rounders in the street

You taught me how to bowl over arm. I wanted to play cricket but it never happened How full of possibility the world seemed, the energy, the joy, the lust for life.

Now just a handful of dust

A brother

Northern Ireland coast

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/oct/09/the-poems-of-seamus-heaney-review-collected-works-reveal-his-colossal-achievement

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/06/positive-thinking-can-make-success-feel-like-the-only-acceptable-option-but-humility-allows-for-grace?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

https://www.thetimes.com/article/9bdae9c4-2bb7-4c4e-ab5d-ff57bf548139?shareToken=51eef831d7cbaaa8df7f6e59a27a2c51

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/10/palestinians-displaced-gaza-home-ceasefire-israel-hamas?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other